Al All-star Voting A Mystery To Tino

June 24, 1998|By JACK O'CONNELL; Courant Staff Writer

NEW YORK — Yankees first baseman Tino Martinez has surpassed Cleveland's Jim Thome in fan balloting for the American League All- Star team. Figures released Tuesday showed Martinez has 687,977 votes and Thome 682,064.

No one is more surprised than Martinez. ``How can that be?'' he said. ``Don't get me wrong. It's an honor to go to the All-Star Game. But I don't think I deserve it this year, not with the year Thome is having.''

Thome is batting .332 with 19 home runs and 61 RBI. He leads the league in slugging percentage (.648) and is second in on-base percentage (.428). Martinez is batting .269 with 10 home runs and 52 RBI; he has hit .169 in 83 at-bats since he was hit by a pitch from Orioles reliever Armando Benitez on May 19.

It could change. The totals Tuesday don't count games last week, when the Yankees were in Baltimore and Cleveland. The AL team will be announced June 30 for the July 7 game in Denver.

Different Perspective?

Principal owner George Steinbrenner uncharacteristically downplayed the Yankees' series against the Mets this weekend at Shea Stadium. ``I think I made too much of it in spring training years ago because it took me awhile to find out you can't go undefeated in baseball,'' he said. ``The games against the Mets count now in the standings, but they're not that important in the total picture.'' Manager Joe Torre was not sold. ``That's what he tells you,'' Torre said.